One interesting track is "Frank 2000", which covers the entirety of side 3. If you paid attention to the music credits of Twin Peaks: The Return, that track showed up a few times, but nobody ever seemed to figure out what it was. Now, here it is, this droney, horror movie sorta thing that instantly jogs up memories of the series if you've watched it as many times as I have.

I found "Woodcutters From Fiery Ships" interesting as well. I wonder if Lynch was working on this re-master pre-Return and it sparked something, or if it is just something he's wanted to explore since writing that. I mean, you've got the obvious bit in the title, but I think it's also interesting that the Woodcutters smoke, there is a question of why someone is bleeding from the mouth, and there are flying bugs.

It's also interesting how much of his proposed video game is completely based on this song

Lynch also recently designed a CD-Rom game but it was "blocked from the get-go", he says, because it would have been completely boring to game buffs. He wanted a "conundrum thing... a beautiful kind of place to put yourself. You try to make a little bit of a mystery and a bit of a story, but you want it to be able to bend back upon itself and get lost - really get lost." What was it called? "It was called... um..." Lynch flexes his brow and hesitates, and I'd swear he's making this up on the spur of the moment.

"It was called... Woodcutters From Fiery Ships... Certain events have happened or are sort of happening in a bungalow which is behind another house in Los Angeles. And then suddenly the woodcutters arrive and they take the man who we think has witnessed these events, and their ship is... uh, silver, like a 30s sort of ship, and the fuel is logs." Another dry laugh. "And they smoke pipes."

bowisneski wrote:Beyond that though, I really enjoyed the album as a whole. Only one track didn't click with me, which I consider a success.

Out of nosey curiosity, was that track “A Meaningless Conversation”? I find that DKL is at his most clunky when trying to promote TM.

Other than that track, great stuff. It seems there has been some reworking/mixing of some tracks from the original 1990s mixes, as indicated by Dean Hurley’s credit. In particular, DKL’s vocal on “Jack Paints It Red” feels very much of a product of his post-“Ghost of Love”/Crazy Clown Time vocal stylings. I wonder what that track would have sounded like if released in 1994. I do wonder why they didn’t include the terrific “Headless Chicken,” especially since they included the two FWWM tracks which we’ve all owned for years. The CD is only an hour long, so there was certainly space.

AXX°N N. wrote:Interestingly, the lyrics for "A Meaningless Conversation" were printed in his book Images in the 90s, which at the time I took for a short story or prose experiment.

Weren’t the lyrics to the similar “Strange and Unproductive Thinking” from Crazy Clown Time in there as well?

Just checked. My copy of Images has several “Meaningless Conversations” throughout the book. One is identical to the lyrics of “Strange and Unproductive Thinking,” but I don’t see any that match the lyrics of the recently released Thought Gang song (although they’re all similar gibberish ).

BTW, does anyone know the story behind the switch from the “classic” Badalamenti lineup (Vinnie Bell, Grady Tate, Al Regni &c.) to the new group who appear on The Voice of Love and the majority of the Thought Gang tracks? Is the “new” group made up of LA-based musicians as opposed to NY? (The Thought Gang tracks were recorded in LA, but I do note that the liner notes for The Voice of Love indicate that that album was recorded in NY with the latter group...)

While we’re on the subject of obscure Lynch/Badalamenti musical arcana, not sure how many are familiar with this 1996 recording collaboration with Monty “The Cowboy” Montgomery’s then-wife Jocelyn West, “And Still.” It’s a beautiful song in the Julee Cruise vein, and notably mentions both a woodsman and an owl.

Mr. Reindeer wrote:While we’re on the subject of obscure Lynch/Badalamenti musical arcana, not sure how many are familiar with this 1996 recording collaboration with Monty “The Cowboy” Montgomery’s then-wife Jocelyn West, “And Still.” It’s a beautiful song in the Julee Cruise vein, and notably mentions both a woodsman and an owl.

I love that song! I remember for awhile it was hard to hear the full thing, but snippets were in 'Pretty as a Picture' (I think?). Then I found a radio show where Lynch was interviewed & they played the whole song. That was my go-to place to listen for awhile.

Also really dig the 'Lux Vivens' album Lynch & Jocelyn did, & especially love Jocelyn's solo album 'Salt Bird' (check out the title track if you haven't heard it before). Still can't believe she was married to The Cowboy!